8 Ball Pool: Everything You Need To Know

So maybe you’ve just started 8 Ball Pool for the first time or just want to learn a few new tricks to improve your game, well we’ve got you covered. We’ve also included some questions we get asked a lot on our Facebook pages and on Twitter.

We’ve even got tips from the best: M A G I C C U E, Kunal908 and G A R Y have sent us their advice on how to become a top 8 Ball Pool player.

PROTIP: G A R Y says “The safety side of things is very important also. It’s very easy to clear 5 or 6 balls after the break but sometimes you may run into trouble. That’s where frames are lost. If you’ve messed up after clearing the table of most of your balls and left your opponent a nice easy table. You can avoid this by identifying the balls in awkward positions early on and try to break them up so you can pot them easily or play a safety game to force your opponent to make an error and take advantage of it.

Game Rules

Calling pockets

To call a pocket all you need to do is click the pocket you want to pot the ball into. Some of the mid-ranked tables require you to call the pocket on the 8 Ball and the higher rank tables require you to call a pocket for every ball.

Common fouls

Fouls that will result in a ball in hand for the other player

Running out of time: you have a short amount of time to take your shot, so don’t take too long or play passes to the other player. Your time gets a little shorter with every ball you pot in a game.

Cue ball not hitting your own balls: if the white doesn’t make contact with one of your own balls before hitting your opponent’s balls, or it misses altogether, this is a foul.

No ball hitting the rail: if neither the object ball nor the cue ball hit the rail around the edge of the table, this is a foul. This is to designed to prevent negative play

Potting the 8 Ball: the following situations are fouls, and result in the win being awarded to the other player.

Potting the 8 Ball before all your object balls have been potted.

Potting the cue ball and the 8 Ball on the same shot.

Potting any coloured ball before the 8 Ball on the same shot.

In a tier that requires calling pocket on the 8 Ball, potting the 8 Ball into an uncalled pocket.

Game mechanics

Breaking off

If you get to break off, you can move the cue ball anywhere in the space to the left of the white line.

If you pot one of more balls during your break you get another turn. However, the table will remain “open” so you can choose if you want pot the spots or stripes.

However, any spotted or striped balls potted during the break won’t count until you pot either pattern during your next turn.

If you pot the cue ball on your break, the opponent gets a ball in hand.

Having a ball in hand

You will be able to move the cue ball anywhere on the table. Hover the mouse over the cue ball and it will change to a hand symbol for you to pick the ball up.

On Mobile just swipe to drag the ball around the table.

Using spin

Spin can help you better position the cue ball after you’ve taken a shot, setting you up for your next one. You can also use it to snooker your opponent or stop you from potting the cue ball on your turn.

You can put spin on the ball by moving the red symbol on the cue ball with your mouse or using the arrow keys. That will cause the ball to spin in that direction after it’s hit a ball.

On Mobile, all you need to do is tap the cue ball in the top right of the screen and move the red circle to apply spin in that direction.

PROTIP: M A G I C C U E says “The key to being a great 8 Ball Pool player is positioning. Positioning of the cue ball is key and keeping a tight control on where that cue ball is at all times. Don’t smack the balls like your life depends on it. Use all of the time given to you and think about not just your first shot, but the very last shot you want to play.”

Mini games

Spin the wheel to win a variety of prizes. The top prizes are pretty rare, but thousands of Lucky Cues are won each day! You get one free spin each day you log in.

Scratch & Win

Scratch the cards to match 3 and win big. Not every card is a winner, but the prizes tend to be higher than Spin & Win.

Hi-Lo

Guess if the next number will higher or lower – you can win up to 250k coins! You can cash out anytime over 500 coins.

PROTIP: Kunal908 says “The amount of power you use in your shot is always very important. If the ball is closer to the pocket, using a low power shot will be a better solution. Don’t try for longer shots with lot of power, otherwise there’s a higher chance the ball won’t go in. Practicing will make you perfect in deciding how much power you need to use in a shot”

Commonly Asked Questions

My coins are going down, even when I win!

Sounds like you have Auto-Recharge turned on for the cues you are using.

Head to the cues menu and tap on any cue you own.

A menu will appear underneath showing a slider that enables or disables the Auto-Recharge. If you want to disable it, just slide it to red and it’s done!

How do I use a photo as my profile picture?

Unfortunately, you cannot add a personal picture from your hard drive of photo album to your profile.

However, you can use one of your Facebook photos instead of your Yo-Me when you use the Facebook connect. In this case, your profile picture from the Facebook account becomes your Yo-Me picture.

Learn how to connect using your Facebook account here and how you can choose between your Facebook name and your username or your Facebook picture or Yo-Me, here.

Unfortunately not. You can only play against people using the same device e.g. both on PC or using iOS and Android devices. Note that you don’t need to have the same device: an iPhone user can play an Android user, for example.

Will you release 8 Ball Pool on Windows Phone?

There are currently no plans to release 8 Ball Pool on Windows Phone.

My Spin & Win doesn’t work!

If you can’t pull the lever/handle on Spin & Win in 8 Ball Pool, please see this Knowledge Base article which has a couple of solutions.

If your issue requires more help you can contact our super-friendly Support team

Support also have an extensive knowledge base where you’ll probably be able to find a solution to your issue.

You can also contact Support directly and submit a ticket here or email support@miniclip.com.

We hope that this has given you a great start to your 8 Ball Pool career, we’re looking forward to seeing you joining the ranks of the best players in the game. We’ll be continually updating this guide with new info about 8 Ball Pool. If you have any suggestions, let us know in the comments section or tell us on Facebook.

It is very easy, I had the say trubble when I was level 1, but now that I am lev 20 I know all the rules. However, to shoot you pull back via the bottom of your screen, the further you pull back the more power you put on the white ball

Great game indeed, but i dont understand rule why opponent has ball in hand after i miss my balls or if time runs out. I understend i miss my shot, but ball in hand… For me that rule ruins the almost perfect game.

No! you need to learn how to use the powers and if you know how to use the powers MASTERCLASS see thats why i consider playing 8 ball pool. Plus you click on the ball then move where you want it to then hopefully you will win the match

Hi miniclip, I made a new Yome for pool a couple of weeks ago and its still not updating my picture is still a question mark, please please fix and tell me how long should I wait for it please miniclip…help

Games disconnected again and loses are handed out. Also after making ball(s) after break and making a successful second shot, balls are rearranged, ball spotted and I lose my turn while opponent takes over. Ben, why so little reply to our comments?

Rest the rack atop any ball on the spot,place two balls positioned as to angled properly for either corner pockets, hitting the cue ball with bottom english the cue ball is placed on top of the other spot. The two balls go into corners, the rack falls down landing precisely on top the ball.

Making the shot on break, is a piece of cake, if you know how. Place the ball approx: 2 in, away from dot from the side, just behind the imaginary line, strike the cue ball with force, on the bottom left into the head ball of rack, off center a touch, call it in side pocket, on the right side of table. A little practice and your laughing.

Hi Davide, you earn XP every time you play a game. You get more XP for winning games than losing, and more XP for winning tournaments than winning 1v1 matches. So it’s possible to level up just by playing lots of 8 Ball Pool, but you’ll level up faster if you win more games 😉

Why can’t you play for coins on facebook with friends? A lot of us has window phones and pc’s , why not make a version for windows? Love the game wish there was a practice mode just for practicing shots.

Hello laurent its very nice to meet you and i will tell you how to change your avatar you will scroll up till you can’t scroll anymore (Make sure you are on the home page). you should see where it shows a blue person you click on it and it will say multiple things. the one you will need to go to will say change avatar have fun and good luck.

do you think you could add YOUR WELOCOME to the chat for after someone says thanks. Also there should be a way to get out of a game if a player has not played after three turns so that the other player is not sitting there waiting the full time.

I think that this game unique and with that power comes responsibility i issue all players out there to listen, i have been doing such good shooting when i shoot there is no stopping me i should make videos but i don’t have a camera my trick shots are amazing i really wish i could show you. My real identity is former world champion of pool. if you want to find me look in go to friends type in UMadeMyDay just send me a challenge request and ill give you ideas and show you the best trick shots the world has ever seen. Good luck everyone and good day have fun.

hey guys… how can i play against my facebook friends? when i click on Play Friends, it opens a new transparent window written Seacrh online Player. but there i can’t find my facebook friends who are online and playing the game. please let me know anybdy

THIS game is Good but shoud be more Equal Not 17lv VS 110 playing all day long for last 6 mounts its kinda lame to make me with one turn and take my hard worked coins and says HEHE!!!! or you dont have a chance!!!

i notice you have created a guidelined 500,000 game. Could you please create either lower cost tournaments or lower cost 1-1 non guidelines. I prefer playing non- guideline as it takes more skill but would also like not having to risk quite as much cash to do so. how about two versions of every tournament, one with guidelines, one without?

Well, I guess I don’t mind the new cues after all. Or maybe I’m just too addicted to stop playing. Though sometimes when I’m in a match I go to change to a different cue and not all of my cues are there. Also, my cues don’t recharge when play friendlies. One thing I think would be cool is if there were special rooms where only certain cues (like the standard cue, for example) are allowed.

Hello, I love the game and have been playing for a couple of years now. One thing I’d love to see (besides multiplayer 9 ball) is a player stat that shows percentage of denial games (break and runout to win).

“Cues have powers” is a dumb feature. Consider the real-world manifestation; the more I play the worse I get? It’s just a ploy to use up Pool Cash and makes me play less. Otherwise a great game, but the paying $200 to refresh one’s cue really sucks.

“Cues have powers” is a dumb feature. Consider the real-world manifestation; the more I play the worse I get? It’s just a ploy to use up Pool Cash and makes me play less. Otherwise a great game, but the paying $200 to refresh one’s cue really sucks. chris no stop admin ?

You have an award for sinking the 8 ball on a break but yet you don’t win the game for doing so? How pointless and meaningless is that? Very strange!

Your tournament entry fees and prizes don’t add up! 8 players in London each pay 200 coins for the entry fee for a total of 1600 coins. The runner up earns their 200 coins back leaving 1400 coins in the pot and yet the winner only receives 1000 coins? It’s very peculiar that 400 coins (an astounding 25% of the pot) just vanish into thin air! It’s not right for you to steal prize money, especially when many players buy coins with real money! The higher the stakes, the more you take! This is lower than low and is nothing more than a cheap, greedy, dirty trick to steal people’s money! Shameful!

Can’t seem to get the app to work on my iPhone 5 I was playing it before and now it doesn’t load it tells me 8 ball is haveing a problem connecting to FB can someone please help me I deleted the app and fB app and tried it from there and it still doesn’t work

Hey Ben, I have ~250 billion coins, with total winnings around 400-500 billion but the number stops at 2.147 billion, requesting that the number be extended 2 digits so that you can tell what the total winnings actually are, would appreciate a response. Thanks

I live it two but I lost mine by being on a touch screen and hitting the wrong thing and I have done it twice now for 250000 I just wish they would like if u want to continue ir something I. Case u hit the wrong thing your not stuck into possibly losing your money

Hey Ben, I have ~250 billion coins, with total winnings around 400-500 billion but the number stops at 2.147 billion, requesting that the number be extended 2 digits so that you can tell what the total winnings actually are, would appreciate a response. Thanks!

I cant get my YoMe to show up as my picture instead of the question mark as my profile pic??? and there should really be a would you like to continue option when playing i accidentally hit a game for 500000 when i saw there was no way out i lost 250000 tabletsand smart phones are touch screens…..

Ben, my coin balance is over 100 times more than is shown on mobil, and total winnings, probably around 500 billion, but only shows 2.147 billion. Please allow more room for the digits missing to show a true coin value. Would appreciate the topic brought up for someone to look into changing. Thanks!

Ben, just would like a response on raising the total winnings value, and also, the coin balance for phone. Stops at 2.147 billion. Requesting to inflate the value x 100 or more. Please respond, thanks for your time.

some how i lost 50k after winning a game vs a guesst… i had 74k i won a 5k game i woke up with 24..
oh and also i got spammed that the guest i have been played with passed me about 6 messages.. WIERD GAME NOT THE! not the 1st time and i think about quiting playing cause of this bugs..

I was wondering if you guys could add a messaging feature on 8ball pool. So that I could message my friends in between games or organise a game. Will this feature ever be added to the game? I’m sure many people would find this useful.

I am confused, I had 500 coins. Played a round that cost 100 winnings are 200. But after I won round I only had 580. O.o Am I missing something here or is there a glitch we all are missing? I like 8 ball alot and just want to know what’s going on.

Can the developers of the pool game make changes so that experienced players do not have to be lined up with newbies in tournament mode. You should not have to play another player who is not a t least within 20 of your rating.

ex 88 rating should only be able to play a player of no less than a 68 rating. 120 rating should not be able to play a 5 rating player.

These new players have no idea of how game works; take far too long, and just bash balls all over the table. Please fix this issue.

Is any one here facing weekly winning problem? What is going on? Since this league system has started I have not got any weekly winnings on mobile version. I play not only to kill the time but to win as well but at the end of the week it says I haven’t played a game even. What about the league country and world winners? Haven’t you got this ? Miniclip if you cant get the competion thing put into right codes then give back the game as it was in start were every one was equally treated whether it is the cues/rechargeable or winnings.

In practice mode the site is playing very slowly… 30 to 60 seconds at least to next shot and the table then rearranges completely even if I have only potted one ball very slowly. i.e no other balls disturbed.
Happens every shot but not apparent when I am signed in on tournaments etc.

there is a lot of time people negative play with me, and try to hide the cue ball behind their ball which is unable me to aim at my ball so they hit their ball very light shot and none of the ball hit the rail even tough I don’t get ball in hand or the game didn’t foul them
any one have a logic explanation for this case

cool game .. but every time i win … i loose credit ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? if i win i can loose up to 200 credit instead of keeping them + ///////////????????????

Sorry made a mistake I have close to 1500 wins and I’m a level 25 it takes for ever to move up levels im at a 64 win percentage I play people on my level with a lower winning record and more loses then me I there a problem with my game???

I just figured out recently, that coins and level are mutually exclusive. If you’re winning lots of games, and 64% is respectable, maybe your playing lower stakes sites. And their are no “XP”? points at the “London Pub” site, for instance.
I went from a level 30 to 35 in two days, just playing at the Sydney Malibu Bar, site. 177 xp pts when u win and 35 pts when you loose. Moscow is even higher on coins and pts, but u have to call the eight ball! I have, but don’t like the pressure! 🙂

Question: what is the point of people quitting the game when you are about to or already have won the game? Also, is there any way to contact the creators of the game to ask if they can put a limit on how many times an opponent can use the “waiting for opponents response” because there are people that use that every time you are going to shoot just to make you mad. They should only be allowed to do that like once or maybe twice during a game.

Hey Sara,
I get this annoying announcement too! Did not know there’s a button to click to get this, have been searching for a pause button myself (my mom keeps asking me things when i’m playing which causes me to lose everytime because she gets mad if i keep playing while she’s asking me stuff). So could you please tell me where I can find this button? I’ll promise I won’t misuse it 😉

So…I started playing this game awhile back and it was okay at first. There are a lot of different options when it comes to customization and whatnot with the pool cues, multiplayer tournaments, online friend activity, achievements, and so on. After some time, though, I started noticing that the game is largely based on luck (whether or not you can prevent your opponent from blindly hitting a crowd of balls and almost always making one or two in) and very little skill. I had played close to 1,000 total games with almost a 70% win percentage and a lot of times very low level players would beat me for absolutely no other reason than the fact that they would blindly hit the ball and get a few in at a time. Furthermore, another way the game puts you at a disadvantage is the part of the game that should be primarily based on luck (the slot machine) it’s completely rigged. 95% of the time the slots are played you hit anywhere between 100-500 coins and hitting 500 was extremely rare. It’s sad, really, because I often enjoyed playing this game before I had to worry about a low level player with absolutely no skill beating me and ruining my pristine win percentage taking money I had acquiredinampleamounts of games. Miniclip…redesign your game so that skilled players aren’t embarrassed and turned away from you because they lose to a low level player for absolutely no known reason other than the fact that they can pull a cue stick back and release. Pathetic.

You aren’t playing high enough level games. Play with no grid lines or call pocket on every shot tables so that it negates that factor. If you cannot get enough coins to make it to those tables you would lose to the more skilled players anyway.

I agree to a certain extent! However, unlike ‘straight’ pool, which requires a lot more individual shot making skills, on each shot, the “slop” shot is an integral part of 8 ball. Sometimes just dumb luck wins the game, Theoretically, you only have a shot, maybe, at 50% of the balls. In straight pool, it’s strictly, ‘how many shots in row, can you make before you either win the game (usually 150), or loose your turn. The challenge in 8ball is, “If you’re shooting? Don’t miss” 🙂

hey my name is maira but when am playing 8ball pool my name is changed there !!!y?????
instead of maira its showing the old name which i use to have before !!!!!!! plzzz some one say me how to change the name

Question about using the cue ball to spin your shots. When I look at the enlarged cue ball under the table, should I be using it like a clock, with ’12 o’clock’ always on the top? Or should I be picturing the ball as it’s currently on the table? When hitting English, you usually hit below the center – so is below always actually below? I’m having trouble trying to get my point across.

How is it possible that an opponent lines up a shot….runs out of time…and then it instantly pops up that she wins on 2nd shot after the break? Unless she/he is using a cheat programy or your app has bugs.

Minclip, I have a suggestion, why when playing a tournament why can’t you make it so that if you loose your game. You stay an watch to see who wins Why can’t you show(the game like 1v1) the tables while your watching the rest of the tournament ?

Hey Ben, I wrote you a while back about having 218 billion coins and the total winnings should be around 500 billion or so. You did say your people were looking into changing it and they did now, but all the coins I won off of the all in challenge still are not included in my total winnings, hoping that you were able to show the true total winnings number soon, thanks!

Really wish it was possible to actually chat with 8ball pool friends. Similar to how it is done on WSOP Texas hold ’em!
Or at least if we could add pool friends as FB friends.
Tried looking up someone but had no luck, as their name is in a different language.

About a month ago I won the Lucky 8 cue and every since I won it I started getting a lot of games where either the whole table is black I can’t see the cue balls, cue stick guide line or pockets…. Or the table is all black and I can only see the pockets. This is really frustrating! I had an 18 game win streak and the next game I played was all black table, I couldn’t see no pockets, guide line or cue balls. So I obviously quit! What a freaking heartbreaker to lose your 19th game that way! Sucked! I also played a $100,000 table and the same thing so I quit! Then I was so frustrated I uninstalled the 8 ball app and installed it again hoping I would not see those all black tables again and sure enough I’m losing a lot of games because it is doing it again! Please help!

How does an opponent tie up the game between shots. Many times after the opponent completes their turn they somehow do not allow the game to continue in course. They many times start chatting and it is obvious they are causing the delay.

My sincere apologies to mini clip and all players. I believed only the top 3 in weekly league games received award coins. I closely watched my game amounts at weeks end and found all players can get coins. Thanks everyone, I will now return to game.

I love, love, love this game, but I have an issue with it. So, I had to (force ) upgrade and so by doing it my higher end cue sticks are now missing…..????
One of them is a glowing stick that I have bought. Now I have to re-buy it
PLEASE REIMBURSE ME.

I have lost 18,000 three times in the final when the game claimed to have run out of time b/4 I touch the stick. I need you to refund me my point now are you don’t have to worry about me purchasing anymore ever again

Is it possible to steal credit without any shame, earlier was stolen credit without any reason, this is not the first time I win a game of victory is given to the opponent while ago I left the game from one level in order to play on the second, on time! the money I was literally stolen !!!!!!!, mistakes happen or how you never make a mistake and give credit, you should be ashamed.

my level on miniclip is 4th and on facebook my level is 14 on both site i put my fb account but i didnt find the solution if any one knows plz help me and how to change our profile picture onfb 8 ball pool account plz tell me

I would like to know if its possible to wager coins against a friend online via PC and if so how to proceed. I challenge my friends online but every time we play it is always for free. I want to play for coins just as we do when we play via our mobile devices. Thanks for your feedback in advance.

Was just playing 8 ball pool and yet again black Gabe appears where pockets can not be seen took a screen shot this time and will post this on the net for all to see how the game is cheating when someone does well. This is not at all good those that play don’t expect to be cheating out of winnings this has happened before and I could not get a screen shot this time I did. How can anyone play a game where pockets are hidden from sight. I honestly thought game had improved and how wrong I was in thinking this.

why can’t you chat with other players while playing the game? you only have stupid pre scripted sayings that no one uses.. you should be able to chat to them like when they break and almost no balls move, you can call them an idiot. or ask them why they are cheating, etc… and why do cues have to recharge? just let people use whatever they want… quit charging for stupid shit that doesn’t matter.

while playing a 500 game on the blue table while potting the black ball in the end y cue gets locked and can not play. the opponent gets the chance again and again and I loose. cna not play 500 game and have to play 200 game only. please help, this happens on the blue table only,

I have a weird issue, im on level 166 (facebook account) and ive been playing 8 ball for years now( ive always played on android devices) however today i logged in on PC with the same account and my level turned back to 1 and it showed only 250 coins while i had in millions, the games played and balls potted also turned 0.but when i log in on mobile im again on level 166. Is there a way in which i can sync my account properly on pc as well. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks